VSA arts’ Family Festival Spotlights Children and the Arts

May 29, 2007

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2007 – VSA arts’ annual Start with the Arts Family Festival, a celebration of the arts throughout the month of June, focuses on children, parents, and community through visual art exhibitions, live music and theatrical performances, and two days of activities that will be taking place at Union Station June 8-9.

The festival is named after Start with the Arts©, VSA arts educational resource for teachers and parents of preschool children.

“VSA arts believes the arts are for everyone, and the family festival is an opportunity for parents and their children to enjoy the arts together,” said Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts. “Children and families can explore their own creativity through art workshops and experience the talents of artists with disabilities through live performances.”

An exhibition of children’s artwork, “Culture Scope: Focusing in on My Life,” will be on display at Union Station from June 5-24. As part of VSA arts’ ArtLink cultural exchange program, students aged 7-14 created visual arts projects that were exchanged with an international partner classroom. One piece of artwork by a student in each classroom was selected to join the exhibition at the festival. Thirteen participating students with disabilities representing the exhibition will attend a congressional reception on Capitol Hill from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 6.

Children’s artwork from ArtLink 2005 will be on display at the Department of Education from June 5-July 20. The 2005 exhibition, “Capturing the Moment: Hour-by-Hour Scenes from our Lives,” reflects both ordinary and extraordinary moments in the students’ lives that they felt were culturally relevant. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on June 5 at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Building.

Live music and stage performances, art workshops with award-winning teaching artists, a book fair, and a celebrity story hour will enliven Union Station on Friday, June 8, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday, June 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Children and their parents will have the opportunity to enjoy the arts together through art workshops including: mask-making with Emily Shepardson, fabric art workshops with Cindy Brandt, and costume-making led by Sarah Demas. On Friday, there will also be dance and movement workshops led by choreographer Shannon Dunne, and Tom Harris and the Inner Harbour Drum Ensemble will teach drumming techniques. The children’s book fair will offer more than 100 titles that discuss differences. More than 180 children from Washington area schools will participate in the art activities on Friday.

Performances on June 8-9 include:

Celebrity Story Hour with Ms. Wheelchair America Autumn Grant, Acting Director of the Department of Disability Services of the D.C. city government Judith E. Heumann, and Miss District of Columbia Kate Michael
Open Circle Theatre’s concert version of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Inner Harbour African Drum Ensemble, a group of students from Georgia who build and play the drums of West Africa
Marleena Coulston, a pop/R&B singer
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, dancers with and without disabilities will perform a work inspired by Shakespeare’s sonnets
Melody Gardot and Quartet, a unique mix of jazz and blues
4 Wheel City, an urban rap group

In addition to its focus on children and the arts, the Start with the Arts Family Festival will bring other dynamic arts experiences to Washingtonians throughout the month of June. Renascence 07, an international juried new media exhibition by artists with disabilities, showcases installations, net art, video, and interactive sculpture that combine visual art and technology to convey personal experience in innovative ways. The exhibition will be on display at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts Terrace Gallery June 1-28.

“Phoenix Dance,” a documentary chronicling the continued career of acclaimed dancer Homer Avila after his leg amputation, will show at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. on June 4. Afterwards, interdisciplinary artist Lisa Bufano will perform a live contemporary movement piece, “Five Open Mouths,” which portrays her challenging yet cathartic recovery from amputation surgery.

Melody Gardot is a 23-year-old award-winning singer/songwriter and guitarist whose multifaceted musical talent has drawn comparisons to Cole Porter, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone. Melody Gardot and Quartet will perform on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. on June 5 and at Farragut Square at noon and 1 p.m. on June 7. The Inner Harbour African Drum Ensemble will also perform at Farragut Square following the quartet. The Ensemble consists of students who have learned both the craft of building West African drums and the art of using them to play West African music.

Visit http://www.vsarts.org/x1266.xml for a performance schedule and more information.

VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts provides educators, parents, and artists with resources and the tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. VSA arts showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities and promotes increased access to the arts for people with disabilities. Each year millions of people participate in VSA arts programs through a nationwide network of affiliates and in more than 60 countries around the world. VSA arts is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Media Contact:
Stephanie Taylor/VSA arts
(202) 628-2800 ext. 3883
SKTaylor@vsarts.org